IELTS Grammar

IELTS Grammar Part 1

Welcome to the IELTS grammar section of IELTS pass.

Improve your understanding of English grammar and your IELTS score will follow!

The objective of the IELTS Pass Grammar post series is to better prepare you for understanding and producing more sophisticated grammatical structures in the IELTS reading, IELTS writing and IELTS speaking modules.

Theme: Present Tense

Level: Advanced

In this IELTS grammar post we are going to focus on Present Time, but from a more advanced perspective that you might normally expect. Before we get started, it is important for you to understand that when we refer to “time” and “tense”, we are not talking about the same thing.

Some verbs have a stative meaning and a different active meaning. Here are some examples:

be, depend, feel, have, measure, see, taste, think, weigh

Compare these uses: State

Debbie is nice.
William has a nice house at the beach.
I think you are very special.
The traffic is awful!
Maybe you have a point.

Event

Jill’s being noisy.

David’s thinking about getting a new job.

I’m feeling great today.
We’re weighing the baby.
Bill, I’m depending on you to win this contract for us.

The differences here apply to all verb forms, not just to present verb forms.

Temporary situations

Are you enjoying your stay here?

Repeated actions

My car has broken down, so I am walking to work these days.

Complaints about annoying habits

You are always making snide remarks about my cooking! Other possible adverbs are: constantly, continually, forever

REMEMBER: When studying IELTS grammar, first, focus on the theory, then make exercises to strengthen your understanding of the concepts. In our next IELTS grammar post, we will provide you with exercises relating to Present Tense.

With verbs describing change and development

The weather is getting colder!
More and more people are finding it hard to pay their bills.

Making declarations
Verbs describing opinions and feelings tend to be state verbs.

I hope you’ll come to my anniversary.
I hereby declare this school open!

Headlines
These are often written in a ‘telegram’ style, and references to the past are usually simplified to present simple.

Ship sinks in midnight collision.

Instructions and itineraries
Instructions and recipes can also be written in present simple instead of in imperative forms. This style is often more personal.

First you add two ounces of salt.
Itineraries are descriptions of travel arrangements.

May 1945: The war in Europe comes to an end.
…At the end of the play both people understand that their feelings caused the unfortunate events…

‘Historic present’ in narrative and funny stories
In informal speech, it is possible to use what we call the ‘historic present’ to describe past events, especially to make the narration seem more immediate and dramatic.

… So then the second man asks the first one why he has a banana in his ear and the first one says…

In our next post, the IELTS Grammar Part 2, we are going to do some IELTS related exercises together, so you can get a better feel for the many different uses of Present Tense from an IELTS perspective. Stay tuned!

Terms of Service

This policy covers how we use your personal information. We take your privacy seriously and will take all measures to protect your personal information.

Any personal information received will only be used to fill your order. We will not sell or redistribute your information to anyone.

Refund Policy

Here at IELTS Pass we take great pride in our IELTS materials, tests and video tutorials.

However, if you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, within 30 days from the purchase date, we will fully refund the cost of your order.

About IELTS Pass

We simply love being able to help you!

Our mission is to enable you to achieve your dreams by playing a key role in your efforts to pass the IELTS exam test quickly and efficiently.

Our IELTS Preparation Course and accompanying exam materials aim to optimise your IELTS exam results, so you can achieve the mark you need.

IELTS Pass was founded by Niels Kokholm Nielsen, linguist and official Cambridge examiner with more than 15 years of experience in the field. He is the founder of digital publishing houses iMentor and Excelência and is the author of 12 ESL books written for emerging markets.